Umsebenzi Online
Umsebenzi Online, Volume 14, No. 23, 16 June 2015
In this Issue:
· Build a united trade union movement; Confront destructive forces and
neoliberal offensives – SACP message of solidarity to Popcru National Congress,
delivered by Cde Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary
Red Alert:
Build a united trade union movement:
Confront destructive forces and neoliberal offensives
SACP message of solidarity to Popcru National Congress, 15 June 2015
http://www.sacp.org.za/pubs/umsebenzi/images/umsebenzi_hand.gif
By Cde Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary
The SACP, with its more than 230 000 members brings you revolutionary greetings
and message of solidarity to your Congress. For us it is an occasion to
underline and strengthen the relationship that the SACP has with Popcru and
indeed Cosatu as a whole.
Maximum working class unity and solidarity
Your Congress takes place at a crucial time in the history of the progressive
trade union movement. It takes place at a time when 30 years of neo-liberalism
has seen massive restructuring of the work-place and the working class, through
amongst other things, massive retrenchments, casualisation, employment of
illegal, vulnerable immigrant workers, and labour brokerage of the working
class. These challenges require maximum unity of the working class as well as
solidarity amongst workers.
The challenges of the period also calls for going back to the basics: organise
and service the workers. It is perhaps time we face the reality that our
majority status as the Cosatu unions in many of the sectors we organise has
also bred some complacency and taking things for granted. As the SACP we once
more call for a massive campaign, led by union presidents, to revive service to
members, whilst also expanding the organisation of new members.
The SACP supports the efforts of COSATU and its affiliates to rebuild worker
unity on the basis of worker democracy, collective leadership and service to
members.
But is it an accident of history that at the time of this huge offensive
against the working class, some within our ranks deliberately start causing
disunity within Cosatu through violating some of its basic principles like one
industry one union? Is it another accident of history that some from within our
ranks see an injury to some of the Cosatu affiliates as an opportunity for
elements like the Numsa leadership clique to cannibalise membership? As the
SACP we do not believe that this is an accident of history.
The new-liberal offensive against the working class and the opportunistic and
divisive behaviours of some within our own ranks are two sides of the same
coin. This is part of an offensive by the bosses to divide, weaken and
ultimately defeat Cosatu in particular. For instance there is so much money
that is bankrolling these efforts. The question is where is this dirty money
coming from? How can a union decide to expand its organisational scope, be at
the heart of forming an alternative federation, lead an effort to form a united
front, and over and above all this wants to form a workers' party. There must
indeed be lots and lots of monies behind all this.
Cults of personality, business unionism, unprincipled attempts to use unions,
union and worker funds to pursue private personal profit, including, personal
political ambitions, altogether with corrupt and divisive conduct, are not
helpful to the cause of worker unity and service to members.
All these and other counterproductive, negative and destructive tendencies must
be confronted openly. They must be defeated if the progressive trade union
movement is to regain its unity and strength and soldier on to greater heights.
The SACP wishes to commend Popcru for its contribution and commitment to
preserving the unity of Cosatu. Workers need principled and united
organisation. They have a crucial role to play in contesting workplace
restructuring, challenging unfair labour practices and advancing both workplace
and societal transformation. As a class, workers are their own liberators!
As the SACP we won't be found wanting in making our own contribution to the
unity of the working class.
It is also important to point to another imperialist strategy to divide and
weaken the working class. This is the strategy to try and drive a wedge between
the communist and labour movements. In South Africa this means driving a wedge
between the SACP and Cosatu in particular. It is no accident that the very same
forces that want to divide Cosatu are blaming the SACP for this. The aim is to
create a conflict between organised workers and the SACP and even the ANC. We
must not allow this to happen.
Driving a second more radical phase of our transition
The task of strengthening the trade union movement must not be separated from
the current strategic and programmatic commitments of our Alliance, that of
driving a second, more radical, phase of our transition. Indeed for us as the
working class driving a more radical second phase of our transition is
integrally linked to deepening the national democratic revolution to its
logical conclusion - a transition to socialism.
The challenge of driving a second radical phase has a number of critical
dimensions. We have agreed that the main content of this programme is that of
economic transformation and development. We need to shift our economy from its
current semi-colonial growth trajectory. We need to transform our economy from
that of simply exporting mineral resources ("a pit to port" economy), to that
which seeks to build the more productive sectors of our economy,
industrialisation and manufacturing. This must also include a major state-led
infrastructure build, localisation, beneficiation, building a vibrant SMME and
co-operative sector and other job-creating initiatives. Neoliberalism is
opposed to our second, more radical phase of transition.
Since 1994 monopoly capital has actively sought to reverse working class gains
as we have already outlined above. But over and above this, since 1994 there
has been a massive capital flight through trans-nationalisaton of former South
African corporates, tax evasion, transfer pricing, and dual listings. In
essence, this capital flight by the beneficiaries of apartheid and white
supremacist minority is a flight from democracy and has undermined our
transformation efforts in a big way. But this was also worsened by our own
government's flirtation with neo-liberal policies between 1996 and 2007,
through removal of trade tariffs and import duties in a rushed liberalisation
of our economy. This was a period during which we were trying to beautify
ourselves before the world hoping that this would pay off. It was part of this
ill-informed set of policies that we for instance signed problematic agreements
like that of the Rome Statute, subjecting ourselves to the highly problematic
international Criminal Court – a court that has not charged Israel for its
criminal actions in Gaza, nor the U.S. and the UK on Iraq for instance.
The next task in driving a second, more radical phase, is ideological. At the
head of the ideological offensive is what we have referred to as the
anti-majoritarian offensive, whose aim is to discredit majority rule and seek
to undermine the majority of the ANC in particular.
It is important to bear in mind that every economic struggle is political, and
that every political struggle has an ideological dimension. Whilst we have made
a lot of advances on many ideological fronts, but the major sites and terrains
for the production and reproduction of ideas still remains untransformed and
largely white male dominated. For instance our media still largely remains
untransformed, as well as our university professoriate which still is more than
80% white. Whilst these are not the only sites of production of ideas, but they
play a huge role in shaping the ideological outlook of any society.
The media in our country is dominated by private monopoly, despite the fact
that we have a public broadcaster. Within this monopoly, Naspers has dominance.
The old, apartheid, broeder-bond, media giant Naspers, and its off-shoot
Multichoice, has effectively gained control of what was supposed to be
democratic South Africa’s public broadcaster, the SABC. It is inconceivable
that they could have done this without the connivance, of course, of their
bought lackeys in Auckland Park.
The lackeys have sold out some of the important public broadcaster’s rights on
its 24-hour news channel and new entertainment channel. Our national heritage,
SABC archives, have effectively been handed over to the control of the private
monopoly. The lackeys have, respectively, alienated the SABC of its rights of
independent programming and marketing, to Multichoice.
The problematic relationship subordinating the SABC to private capital
accumulation, is causing an irreparable harm on public broadcasting.
According to the collusion, the SABC will not even repeat, on its other
channels, the programmes broadcast on its entertainment channel. It is by the
way to the same monopoly that the SABC has passed on television rights acquired
from the PSL. This has led to poor households denied access to most matches as
these can only be viewed on pay TV Multichoice. The SABC has to practically beg
back the rights it has passed on to Multichoice in order to broadcast some
important matches.
The SACP will continue and intensify its campaign to Save our Public
Broadcaster and bring it back from the whims of private monopoly. We will
continue and intensify our campaign to achieve media transformation and
diversity. We call upon Popcru and indeed the entire trade union movement to
join us in this campaign to undo the dirty deal between the SABC and
MultiChoice.
We will not be threatened by what clearly appears to be a witch-hunt against
our senior leadership by Naspers’ News24 titles, especially the City Press.
This newspaper has been on a fishing expedition to try and discredit us. We
will not back down. We will fight on, to the end!
The Times Media Group, owned by mining monopoly capital, and particularly
Business Day and the Financial Mail, owned by mining monopoly capital, has set
itself up as the principal campaigner against any attempt at advancing the
agenda of industrialisation. Notice how these titles have, like Bulldogs,
consistently attacked Misters Davies and Patel and how they rubbish the
Industrial Policy Action Plan and the New Growth Path. Why? Because their
mining owners are against beneficiation as they could be forced to sell
minerals at locally rather than internationally determined prices.
Ideologically, the current semi-colonial growth path is what the bosses of The
Times Media Group stand for.
The above means we need to intensify the struggles to transform academia and
mainstream media as we pursue economic transformation and development in terms
of our resolve for a second, more radical phase of the National Democratic
Revolution.
Transforming the criminal justice system and fighting corruption
Whilst the transformation of the criminal justice is a distinct and ongoing
challenge, it must however be connected as part of driving a second radical
phase. Central to this is the necessity to continue the struggle to transform
the judiciary.
Corruption in government is, quite correctly, campaigned against, but often
with scant attention paid to corruption, corporate collusion and white collar
crime. As a Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, Popcru is strategically
located in exposing all these and setting a good example on what it means to
fight crime and corruption, on a principled basis, without fear or favour!
The SACP is a dependable ally of the union and the entire COSATU in the fight
against crime and corruption. The Party has for years now initiated a standing
Red Card campaign against crime and corruption. The campaign values the
significance of social mobilisation. It recognises that law enforcement
agencies alone, without strategic partnerships with members of the community,
will find it difficult to eradicate crime and corruption.
The SACP is increasingly becoming concerned that sections of the judiciary, an
important but in many respects a still largely untransformed pillar of our
constitutional democracy, seem to be deliberately overreaching into the spheres
of the other arms of the state. There seems to be a doctrine that is being
pushed that, unlike in other constitutional states, the judiciary in South
Africa must deliberately seek to shape matters that ordinarily belong to the
political arena. This is against the letter and spirit of our agreements in the
negotiations and runs the risk of our people losing faith in our political
system.
For example sections of the judiciary are applauded when they over-reach into
executive functions, but little is said about the persistence of a two-tier
judicial system where wealth buys access to courts and legal defence. When a
handful of MPs decide to indulge in hooliganism and seek to render parliament
dysfunctional, sections of the media applaud and the courts, which are
correctly meticulous in defending dignity within their own spaces, appear to be
indifferent about the challenge confronting parliamentary official and the
wilful undermining of the institution of parliament.
The SACP is of the view that it is time we once more have a national debate on
the separation of powers and the role of each arm of the state.
We therefore need to work together, to build, strengthen and participate in
organs of people’s power, such as street committees and community policing
forums, so that ordinary workers and poor have a say on these matters and that
matters of the rule of law are not only the subject of the elite and their
media. Popcru has an important to play in all of this.
International solidarity
Politically, the neoliberal offensive seeks to disparage any alignments, with
our partners in BRICS, for instance, that provide democratic South Africa with
a degree of policy and strategic manoeuvre within an otherwise hostile
imperialist dominated world. The unfolding international context is filled with
signs of an imperialist onslaught on BRICS and all of its partners without
exception in all key areas.
Given the continuing neo-liberal onslaught, it is absolutely essential that we
do not become isolated into our domestic realities, but instead deepen
international working class solidarity.
We must continue with solidarity with Cuba and not relax just because there has
been some breakthrough on this front.
We must not relax.
We also need to intensify our struggle in solidarity with the Saharawi and the
Palestinian people.
We must join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until
the Palestinian people attain their freedom.
The struggle for democracy in Swaziland requires our active and ongoing
solidarity.
So we must condemn these elements who shout loudest about the need to arrest
some AU leaders but silent on the atrocities of Israel, the U.S. and the UK.
Many of them are hypocrites supported by imperialism.
For a militant Cosatu and strong Alliance
We will not achieve any of the above goals and overcome the challenges unless
we build strong organisation. We need a strong ANC with vibrant branches that
are not an extension of tenderpreneurs who want to use the ANC to accumulate
wealth on a private basis. We need ANC branches that must serve their
communities. It is incumbent upon workers to join ANC branches in their
numbers. We need a strong SACP, and SACP that is not a refuge for some to fight
their own battles with the ANC.
Most importantly, we need a strong, independent and militant Cosatu. We do not
want a Cosatu that is an extension of government. We do not need a Cosatu that
is a labour desk of the ANC or the SACP. Our revolution requires a radical and
militant Cosatu, but that remains part of the Alliance, challenge government
where necessary, but not be oppositionist.
· Dr Blade Nzimande is SACP General Secretary and Minister of Higher
Education and Training. He delivered this Party message to Popcru National
Congress, 15 June 2015
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